The first two-day workshop on “Voter List Management, Competencies, Challenges, Solutions, New Technologies” was held, which was attended by representatives of the regional offices of the State Election Commission. This is the first in a series of workshops on training, improving and strengthening the capacity of regional offices.
The workshop focused on the right to vote and how the Constitution defines the suffrage of citizens, the role of the Electoral Code and the State Election Commission. The Voters’ List was also discussed, as a database and a public document in which adult citizens with the right to vote are registered, the content of the Voters’ List and the competent institutions and the maintenance of the Voters’ List.
The focus was on the competencies of the regional departments and offices of the SEC regarding updating the data in the voter list and updating the descriptions of the polling stations. As Blagoja Stojkovski, State Adviser for Voters’ List, Voting Rights and Polling Stations from the SEC, pointed out: “Regular and ongoing updating of the data in the voter list is done four times a year, which means registration, deletion and addition (data changes).” The content of the non-distributed voters and the professional-technical descriptions of the polling stations were also discussed at the workshop.
Representatives of the election administration were also introduced of new technologies. The functionality of VIMS – the electronic system for recording the right to vote was presented through a video presentation. As pointed out by Nermina Djurdjevic, Head of the Department for Voting Rights Registration and Updating the Voters’ List from the SEC, all representatives of the election administration will have more detailed training for VIMS in the coming period.
The purpose of this series of workshops will greatly contribute to improving and enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of the election administration, so that they can provide better services to voters.
The focus of the next workshops will be on global, European and national experiences, trends and changes, mutual support, data confidentiality, cyber hygiene, election security and human resource management.
